Patterns
...ed fan. She is tripping along the pathway in high-heeled, ribboned shoes. The word “tripping” has a negative connotation. It seems unnatural for her to be wearing the uncomfortable shoes. She says there is “Not a softness anywhere about me, / Only whalebone and brocade.” She is required to wear a girdle, which is made of whalebone, and her dress is made of a stiff, brocaded material. She is confined in her clothes. She says, “..my passion / Wars against this stiff brocade.” She would like to see her gown “lying on the ground.” She wants to throw off her confinements. Glover 2 The speaker is trapped by the pattern of her society. She says, “And I walked into the garden, / Up and down the patterned paths, / In my stiff, correct brocade”. Her brocade is referred to as “correct” because her high society expects her to wear a style like that. Society wants her to look and act like a lady. She does not like being part of the high social class. She is expected to lead a proper life. She says, “Underneath my stiffened gown / Is the softness of a woman bathing in a marble basin.” When water is in a basin it is trapped; it cannot flow freely. She too is trapped in something stone like and stiff. She is trapped in her society. She wants to be like the daffodils and the squills that “flutter in the breeze / As they please.” The flowers can do what they want, but she cannot. She begins to fantasize about her fiancé. She says, “We would have broke the pattern; / He for me and I for him.” She could break free through marriage. Many people view marriage as a confinement, but she views marriage as a way of freedom. When she receives the letter that says her fiancé died in battle, she has to act like a lady. She does not cry in front of the footman. Instead, she is a good hostess and gives him refreshment. She cannot show her emotion because she is a lady and must have good manners. Her social manners are a pattern. The poem itself is another pattern. Poems are expected to follow rhythm and rhym...